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Monday, May 10, 2010

Champions crowned in the EPL

Chelsea eliminated any drama in the final day of a fantastic English Premier League season with an 8-0 pounding of Wigan giving them the championship with a one point gap over defending champion Manchester United, 4-0 winners over Stoke City. Chelsea and United will be joined in Champions League play next season by Arsenal and Tottenham.

In Italy, the race is also going down to the wire as Inter Milan maintained a two-point gap over AS Roma with a game to play. Spain has a tight race going to the wire with Barcelona up a single point on Real Madrid with a game to play. Great season in all the major leagues this year.

The Phoenix Suns swept the San Antonio Spurs to exorcise a rather large demon of theirs over the years. They could use a few extra days to heal Steve Nash's eye, looking pretty horrific in the picture above.

The Oakland Raiders finally released JaMarcus Russell, who earned $36m for going 7-18, with 18 TDs in 3 years. Hell of an argument, on top of logic, for a rookie wage scale in the next round of collective bargaining, no?

The Boston Red Sox are 2-8 at home against Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees, outscored 67-37 in those games. Ouch.

Is it me, or does PJ Stock on Hockey Night in Canada seem as comfortable on TV as the "Boom Goes The Dynamite" guy?

Gotta hand it to Dana White. With the public perception his is a dirty sport - right or wrong - he acts swiftly to address a cheap shot from Paul Daley on Josh Koschek following their fight on Saturday in Montreal, tossing Daley from UFC permanently, despite him being a talent and in the championship mix. And people think Roger Goodell is tough on NFLers. If you hadn't heard, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua beat Lyoto Machida for the Light Heavyweight title with a first round knockout. Good card in Montreal.

Toronto FC looked as good as they've ever looked in a 4-1 win over the Chicago Fire Saturday at a ridiculously windy BMO Field. Chad Barrett, O'Brian White and Dwayne De Rosario looked fantastic together attacking Chicago in the second half. If TFC can get it going on the road, they're gonna be something. As it stands, a hell of a turnaround from the first two games of the year when things seemed dire.

The Detroit Red Wings were eliminated Saturday by the San Jose Sharks, who are gaining steam the deeper the playoffs get. Last night, the Vancouver Canucks had a stay of execution with a game five 4-1 win in Chicago. Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins have the guillotine poised over the necks of the past best-before-date Montreal Canadiens in Montreal while the Boston Bruins look to finish off the Philadelphia Flyers.

Interesting argument put my way on drug use in baseball this weekend. For all the talk of Barry Bonds having used steroids in breaking the all-time record, nobody talks of how amped on amphetamines Pete Rose was for decades in breaking the all-time hit record, and that was done openly with plenty of witnesses in the media. For me, same principle applies in both cases: if there wasn't a rule against it at the time, he didn't break a rule. Period.